Which water (hardness) to use for Da Hong Pao, Tie Guanyin and Siji Chun?

Semi-oxidized tea
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Cifer
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2021 6:15 am

Sun Oct 23, 2022 1:25 am

Hello everyone!

Could someone let me know water of which hardness I should generally use to get a fairly authentic taste out of Da Hong Pao, Tie Guanyin and Siji Chun oolongs? I use filtered water for my standard teas and Black Forest (about 30 ppm) for green teas. Would that be too low of a mineral content for the above teas? If so, what hardness should I roughly aim for, respectively?

Thanks a lot!
Last edited by Cifer on Tue Oct 25, 2022 10:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
maple
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Sun Oct 23, 2022 1:51 am

I tried 100ppm (Asahi's Fuji Water/ Volvic) and worked fine with Yancha.
Cifer
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2021 6:15 am

Sun Oct 23, 2022 2:04 am

maple wrote:
Sun Oct 23, 2022 1:51 am
I tried 100ppm (Asahi's Fuji Water/ Volvic) and worked fine with Yancha.
Thank you!

I know harder waters work fine with most oolongs, but what I'd like to know is if about 30 ppm is too little to produce an authentic taste or not.

I was not able to find a source stating what kind of water is used in Wuyi, besides saying it is of great quality and has "great minerality". The water where the tea is grown is supposedly the best choice, but on the other hand, many people in China deem purified water to be ideal for brewing yancha.

These two claims contradict each other, so I am not sure at all if 30 ppm water is fine for all the teas I listed, or if I'd need something harder for some of them.
Andrew S
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Sun Oct 23, 2022 4:46 am

@Cifer: searching for the 'best' or the most 'authentic' water may be like searching for the 'perfect' teapot. There's no such thing.

I am not sure if you have much experience with these teas yet. If you do not, then you may find it to be useful to try the same tea with, say, three different waters side-by-side, to understand where your own preferences lie. You may also want to try the water itself, both fresh and boiled.

The TDS count for a water also won't tell you everything; different minerals will do different things with your tea. Like everything in the world of tea, it is complicated, but it also depends upon people's preferences and various other factors. There won't be an absolute perfect option for everyone.

Andrew
Cifer
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2021 6:15 am

Sun Oct 23, 2022 5:19 am

Andrew S wrote:
Sun Oct 23, 2022 4:46 am
Cifer: searching for the 'best' or the most 'authentic' water may be like searching for the 'perfect' teapot. There's no such thing.

I am not sure if you have much experience with these teas yet. If you do not, then you may find it to be useful to try the same tea with, say, three different waters side-by-side, to understand where your own preferences lie. You may also want to try the water itself, both fresh and boiled.

The TDS count for a water also won't tell you everything; different minerals will do different things with your tea. Like everything in the world of tea, it is complicated, but it also depends upon people's preferences and various other factors. There won't be an absolute perfect option for everyone.

Andrew
Thanks for the answer.

What I was asking for is the accepted range of water hardness for the above oolongs to taste like they are supposed to.

I am aware that individual taste matters too, but for each type of tea there is a range of water hardness which is appropriate to brew it. For example, sencha, gyokuro and other Japanese teas can't successfully be brewed with water harder than 80 ppm. Some people might drink them with that kind of water, but they don't taste like they should. The individual mineral composition plays a part too, but if you stay within this range you will generally get an authentic taste. When I say ppm, I am not referring to TDS but to Total Hardness, as TDS is a mostly useless number.

I've managed to find Chinese articles about the water in Wuyi by now, and it appears that the proper hardness to brew Da Hong Pao is between 60 ppm and 100 ppm.

However, I haven't found info on the ideal range for Tie Guanyin and Siji Chun. It would be great if someone knew.
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Baisao
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Tue Oct 25, 2022 8:49 pm

Cifer wrote:
Sun Oct 23, 2022 1:25 am
Hello everyone!

Could someone let me know water of which hardness I should generally use to get a fairly authentic taste out of Da Hong Pao, Tie Guanyin and Siji Chun oolongs? I use filtered water for my standard teas and Black Forest (about 30 ppm) for green teas. Would that be too low of a mineral content for the above teas? If so, what hardness should I roughly aim for, respectively?

Thanks a lot!
PPM of what? Calcium carbonate?

TDS won’t tell you everything but it will tell you a lot about the texture of a water. I suggest finding a nice tasting spring water with a TDS between 45-150. Unlike coffee which needs a pH buffer, if the water tastes good, it will make good tea.
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wave_code
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Tue Nov 01, 2022 3:55 pm

I would also suggest using the water you know best as a starting point and go from there comparing with a couple different options and/or to consider mixtures. Black Forest is a good one, but I find it a little too soft for most of what I drink. depending on what region you are in and what is available to you I use Spreequell since I find it works well enough for most of what I drink, and its basically local water but filtered with lower TDS so its not like I'm shipping water all around and it comes in glass. Bad Liebenwerda is another decent option. Higher TDS of certain minerals may add more body of other characteristics but I find it reduces aroma and from what I can draw conclusion wise may also brew out teas faster but that is because each brew extraction is also higher. Spreequell is good for my for daily use, but for example with higher end teas, especially sheng I'll do something like a 50/50 blend with Black Forest to lighten the water up a bit. some people I know would probably choose Lauretania (which I think has a TDS of something like 14?) for a tea when I would say Black Forest is too light though - so no easy answers here.

Its up to you what you would consider an optimal balance and you might find that varies tea to tea and what you want to get out of it. I like my TGY very high/death roast, so I'm not super worried about delicate notes getting lost and I want the higher minerality. If you like green or lower roast TGY though, then maybe you want lighter water?
tolean
Posts: 82
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2021 12:13 am

Mon Nov 14, 2022 11:05 pm

I remember it nice finding this guys. There are more ,, recipes,, also found some in Russian language. But basis points are the same:
https://www.teacurious.com/water-recipe
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